Aircraft structure components within the meaning of the present invention may be any kind of aircraft structure component, in particular the fuselage or fuselage sections, wings or wing sections, tail units, rudders, elevator assemblies, ailerons, high lift systems, engine cowl, or the similar, as well as parts of the afore-mentioned.
The methods for making an aircraft structure component known in the art usually after the assembly of the aircraft structure component having an outer skin, the step of varnishing the outer surface of said outer skin by means of a spray pistol, which step is usually very time consuming. The varnishes used in the art do not have particular electrically conductive properties. The aircraft structure component itself is usually made of a metallic or a fiber composite material which is characterized by a certain electric conductivity. However, the aircraft structure component may only conduct electric current as a whole in a rather diffuse manner and no discrete electric conductor elements are provided.
Yet, electric conductor elements provided on the outer skin of aircraft structure components may serve for several advantageous applications, such as a lightning protection system, a structure health monitoring system, a deicing system, a cosmic radiation shielding system, or an illuminating system. Therefore it is desirable to produce aircraft structure components having an outer skin provided with electric conductor elements.
However, it is rather complex and expensive as well as disadvantageous from the aerodynamic point of view to install electrical conductor paths for example in the form of wires on the outer surface of the outer skin of aircraft structure components.